


Gods and Strangers

by meowgicmage (queerfindings)



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Asexual Solas, F/M, Oblivious Lavellan, The Author Regrets Nothing, Timeline What Timeline
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-14
Updated: 2017-09-14
Packaged: 2018-12-29 17:42:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12090093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queerfindings/pseuds/meowgicmage
Summary: I will take a hammer, and I will FIX the canon. Maybe I'm tardy to the party but I just played my Solavellan go-round in DA:I. I am emotionally compromised.





	Gods and Strangers

Soft words in Elven, gentle pressure along her left arm. Something hot and sharp and foreign under her skin. They brushed her hair away from her face and laid a cool cloth on her forehead. She sighed and turned toward it. The slight tug of magic in the air around her, swooping like when they descended into a valley. 

“Can you tell me your name?” She cracked her eyes open, cautious at first, though ultimately unnecessary. The room was dimly lit by a handful of guttering candles. 

“Ellana Lavellan of the Dalish clans. Where am I? I met you…on the mountain path, yes?” She rubbed her head as she eased into a sitting position. He supported her upright. Nodded twice. 

“Solas. I'm here to help.” Another warm touch of magic. The throbbing in her head went down. She stole a sideways look past him, to the door. 

“Do the shemlen know you are using that here?”

“We have an agreement.” A brief smile touched his lips. “Though it is thoughtful of you to worry.” She shrugged a little. 

“We watch out for our own.” Now that her head cleared she could look around at the small room they were in- a desk and chair, a small chest by the door, two windows battened against the chill air by thick canvas, and the bed she currently lay in. Someone, likely Solas, had relieved her of her top, but not her leggings. Her daggers lay on the chair by the bed within easy reach. Solas sat at her side, but a polite distance. 

“The Mark has stopped spreading so rapidly, you'll be glad to know,” he commented once he saw she'd properly oriented her surroundings. Her eyes dropped to her left arm…and the surreal green glow in her palm. She could almost believe she cupped a miniature sun in her hand, if not for the ashen pallor of her fingers, or the darkness of the veins that ran directly beneath the skin in muted gray. They clustered darkest from fingertips to just below her elbow, though if she squinted she could see more running up to her elbow and across that side of her chest. 

“What is it, do you know?”

“Not yet,” he sighed. Solas held out a hand, waited for her to place hers in it, and stroked her fingers flat in his palm to examine the Mark. “I believe it may be magical in origin, but it is…unlike anything I have seen. What's important is it isn't trying to kill you at the moment.”

“Little victories,” she let out a snort of dry laughter. 

“Indeed. How do you feel?” He let her go and touched the back of his hand to her forehead, then tilted closer to examine her eyes. She focused on the light dusting of freckles across his lethally sharp cheekbones and the straight line of his nose. 

“I think I'll live. My hand feels…there, but not. It's hard to describe. It does not hurt anymore. It's more uncomfortable than anything.” Ellana flexed her fingers experimentally. 

“The brief illusion of anticipation, like someone might touch you even though no one is there?” She looked up at him in wide eyed surprise. Solas touched her knee lightly. “That is the Fade. It is something I am intimately familiar with, and it will not harm you. It just takes some getting used to.” 

“I imagine.” 

“You should rest.” He stood. “I will ensure no one bothers you. Please, if you need me, do call out. I am right outside.”

“O-oh is this your-” She looked down at the bed, but he just shook his head with a little chuckle. 

“Rest,” he reiterated on his way out. 

As she got a better sense of Haven and its residents, she learned right away why Solas kept to his cabin beside the apothecary. Not only did he assist Adan with potions and healing, but he actively avoided the rest of the camp because there were so many humans who either had a problem with elves, or mages, or both. So he stayed out of the way and avoided confrontation entirely. After tiring quickly of the whispered comments or outright jeers, she learned to do the same. 

“Do I bother you, being here so much?” She inquired one afternoon. They stood in Adan’s, beside the fireplace, Solas grinding poultice whole she dressed long stalks of elfroot. 

“Not at all. I enjoy your company.” He graced her with a smile. “You are quiet, and you never get in the way, and I like watching you work.” He motioned to her small belt knife. “You are skilled with a blade.”

“The secret is years of practice.” She leaned in with a conspiratorial wink. He laughed and inclined his head. “Solas, if I may…I'd like to know more about you.”

“Why?” The change was hard to read unless one knew what the slight flattening of ears meant, but the way his shoulders tensed was universal. His expression drifted into neutral wariness. Ellana couldn't help the flush that took her. She tried to remember if it was rude in this custom to ask so boldly. Solas was an elf, but he was also clearly more versed in shemlen ways. 

“I-if I offended please forgive me-” She stammered. “I only wished to be more familiar with my companion.” Quickly she gathered the bundle she was tying and stepped over to the window with it, fingers deft on the rough hemp twine. Rows of hooks lined the frame for just this purpose, she hung it up, but lingered there until he spoke. 

“Ah. I apologize, there is so much fear in the air- what would you like to know?”

Thereafter she decided she could sit and listen to him talk about the Fade for hours. In his element, he spoke with his hands, and he was more animated than she had ever seen the reserved man. They finished with the task at hand and strolled outside. Though cold, the sun was out, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. She peered up at the peak of the mountain, where the sky turned unearthly green. Thunder rumbled in the distance. 

“It's…sort of pretty, from far away,” she murmured. Solas made some noise of agreement. They watched the swirling light until her gaze dropped to her palm. The light faded by degrees as fat snowflakes drifted from the range behind them. The storm would likely be upon them by nightfall. She traced lines on her palm. Every time the green crackled to life it sent tingles up her arm. She was almost used to it, and yet…

Solas took her hand, and brought it up to kiss the back of her knuckles. The flash of heat, alive, electric, had nothing to do with the Mark this time. 

“This must be so strange for you.”

“It is,” she could find no other way but to admit it, here alone with someone who might understand. “I am expected to solve the breach in the sky itself, when I can barely remember what the customs are here, or the language. I would save everyone. I just did not realize that it came with rules.” Their fingers were still laced. She stared down at their hands. Solas squeezed, and then tipped her chin up. 

“How fortunate they were to find someone with such an open heart.” Something hitched in her chest. A smile crept across her face, she realized she must be blushing. “Do not fret, lethallan. Your path is not easy, but you will not walk it alone.”

“How fortunate I was to find someone with such loyalty,” she echoed with a smile. He chuckled and brushed a piece of hair behind her ear. 

“I am invested in your fate now. I could not leave if I wished to,” he murmured. 

That night, in the midst of the storm, Ellana had her first nightmare. Crackled with green light, fire, blood covered caravans. This was her home, her clan, but not. Every step she took she stumbled over bodies, down to the Halla. They lay, slaughtered, in a circle, and she stood at the center. The Mark pulsed, rose, until she stared at the heavens and shot power into the skies to rain demons down upon them-

The dream vanished. Darkness pressed around her to take the shape of a forest. Unfamiliar, but not threatening. A river spoke somewhere nearby, contributing to the hush around her. She caught her shaking breath, smoothed the tears from her cheeks. A voice made her jump, but when she turned no one was there. No, when she looked closer, and allowed herself to relax, a small blue orb manifested. No words issued from it, other than the clear invitation to follow. 

They emerged in a clearing, where Solas sat at the center in a meditative pose. He cracked an eye open to greet the orb, and gestured her to sit. 

“What is this?” Her native tongue rolled from her mouth, and he replied likewise. 

“You are in the Fade. Along the edges, but still here. You were having a nightmare.” Ellana stared at him for a moment before she folded herself onto the flat rock he sat on. She smoothed her silvery hair back with both hands, took a deep breath. “Be calm, Ellana. It was only a dream,” he murmured. “You will not bring destruction to your clan. In fact, they may be safer where they are.”

“I never asked for this! Little more than a month ago I hardly knew what a chantry was, and now I am expected to save it, and the world! I feel…I feel as if I am drowning, held just below the surface so I can see everyone else around me breathing freely. Am I to be a martyr? Humans love martyrs.” 

Solas let her speak until the frustration ebbed from her frame. She sat forward to put her forehead on her knees. 

“Would you like to leave?” 

“What?” She looked up. 

“We could leave. Disappear into the forest, or the mountains, once more. I know secret places where we would never be found. Let the shemlen fix their own sky.”

“No,” she whispered. “I…cannot.”

“I know.” He held his arms out to her, and she crawled over without thinking to sit between his legs. He folded his arms around her and tucked her under his chin. Of all the things she missed about her clan, this was high on the list. The humans had forgotten how to touch each other. She placed her ear against his chest and wrapped her arms around him. He rubbed her back in little circles. 

“Oh, Ellana, you carry so much,” he murmured into her hair. 

“I want to go home.”

“I know.”

She woke the next morning to a foot of snow, gray skies, and dull chill. Clearly, it was time for real boots, even if she hated having her feet contained. Three layers of leggings, socks, and two tunics and a winter coat later, she rolled around on the floor trying to get her boots on. Someone rapped at the door. 

“Yes?” Cassandra entered, and laughed when she saw Ellana on the ground. 

“Do you need assistance?” The warrior woman inquired, then knelt to pull the laces looser. She helped guide the under layers down inside, then pulled the pants over and strapped them around the upper portion. “There, nothing will get inside now. Please join us at the chantry, there is news from your clan.”


End file.
